After a much needed break from major farm activities, I'm ready to wade back into the blog-o-sphere. This post is going to detail some of my reflections on turkey processing and will contain descriptions of the death of animals. Reader beware.

The turkey processing experience was a complicated one to reflect on. It required a massive amount of work in a short period of time to comply with the law, and it taxed me both physically and emotionally. It also resulted in the sale of 47 turkeys, which made me happy in multiple ways.

A little background: we applied for a $75 WSDA temporary poultry processing permit back in the summer. This allowed us to process up to 1000 birds a year on our farm as long as we followed some general guidelines and sold birds unfrozen within 48 hours of slaughter. We also reserved poultry processing equipment (killing cones, scalder, plucker, and chill tank) using the NABC equipment rental program for the rock bottom low price of $27.05/day (really 48 hours). I converted an old, decrepit bunkhouse on the property into an abbatoir (required LOTS of cleaning), installed some counter space and some sinks, ran a hose and an extension cord, and we were ready to go.

We initially intended to do the processing over two weekends, and reserved the equipment, but realized that the fresh vegetables included in our Thanksgiving Baskets would not last till Thanksgiving if picked up 10 days before. This turned out to be fortuitous, as we were able to do a test run with the equipment the week before in a low stress environment. IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND ABOUT TO EMBARK ON POULTRY PROCESSING FOR THE FIRST TIME, I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO A TEST RUN! The time sensitive nature of selling unfrozen birds means that there is very little margin for error when a lot of birds need to be processed. It took us more than 6 hours to process 4 turkeys on the first weekend, but by the end, we were getting the hang of it. I had processed chickens, rabbits, turkeys, and pigs before, but never more than a few at at time, so it was new for me to try to process animals quickly and efficiently.

During the next week (week before Thanksgiving week), we readied ourselves for the task at hand. It was going to require some logistical planning to get everything done in time. The equipment was rented from 4:00 p.m. on Thursday to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, but it needed to be picked up in Mt. Vernon, which is about an hour away from our farm. At the same time I was going to pick up the equipment, our unpaid intern (my dad) flew in from Michigan. Jen went to pick him up from the airport, while I picked up the equipment. As we were getting ready for bed, we realized that we hadn't thought through an essential part of the process. We had the chill tank rented to quickly chill the birds down to below 45 degrees, and we were planning on putting the birds in the tank in poultry bags as we slaughtered them. At the last minute, we realized this was probably a bad idea because they needed to be in contact with the cold water to cool down completely, plus, we forgot that we needed to return the chill tank on Saturday before anyone came to pick their bird! So, we quickly MacGyvered a solution using some old horse waterers hidden in an old barn stall in a unused corner of the farm. We carried the metal tanks to the abattoir, scrubbed them out, and bleached them down. Now we could take the birds out of the chill tank, bag them, and then put them on ice in the water tanks. Problem solved--but I should have figured it out earlier. We didn't use the chill tank during our test run the week before, thus we didn't have the opportunity to think through this issue.

Five hours of sleep were had, and were outside, in the dark the next morning at 6:00. We had set the scalder up the night before and started it heating up, so it was ready to go. The only thing to do was grab the first turkey. We had moved the turkeys into the barn for coyote protection, but it turned out to be beneficial in other ways, as it was easy to grab the turkeys by their feet from their roosts. If I hadn't had them confined to a small area, it would have been darn near impossible to catch them up. After catching one, I quickly carried it to the cone, where I stuck it in head first, searched for the jugular vein on the neck, and made a quick cut across the vein and carotid. This is the method recommended over and over again, but after going through this 50 times, I've decided that I'm not thrilled with it. Turkeys have a lot of extra flesh on their necks (compared to chickens, say) because of their wattles, with toms being especially fleshy. All that extra flesh made it hard for me at times to get a perfect cut, and it may have also contributed to another problem I experienced: clotting. I was expecting the turkeys to expire after only a minute or so in the cone, but many hung on for much, much longer. Eventually, I realized that blood was clotting at the cut site, prolonging the death of the bird. On most of the birds, I needed to come back after making my initial cut and cut again. This was not enjoyable for me, and I can only imagine that it wasn't enjoyable for the bird. I don't have a problem looking an animal in the eye and ending it's life quickly and efficiently, but a prolonged death is no good. I spent a good deal of my day watching birds die slowly, and by the end of the day, my heart was heavy. Eventually, I broke down while slaughtering the one bird we'd foolishly named. The turkey wasn't a pet by any means, but it had a deformed beak from an early age, and we were amazed that it both survived and thrived. We started calling it "Beaky." My respect for the bird coupled with watching it die in a prolonged fashion was too much to take, and I broke down. Luckily, Jen was there to give me a hug, and after getting my cry out, I felt better and could continue. The advantage of slitting the throat is that it doesn't kill the bird right away, allowing the heart to continue beating and rid the body of blood. There has to be a better way, but I had no time to contemplate it with such a time squeeze. Ugh.

When the turkeys passed and finished bleeding out, I brought them into the abbatoir for scalding followed by mechanical plucking. Although I removed the tail and flight feathers before plucking, the plucker didn't come close to removing all the feathers. Perhaps the plucker was designed for smaller chickens. The plucker probably removed about 80% of the feathers. My dad decided he wanted his job to be finishing up the plucking, and thus the turkeys wen to his station next. It took him about 5-20 minutes per bird finish plucking. The darker birds tended to take more time because of the dark pin feathers and pigment sacs. Larger birds also took more time, a combination of the mechanical plucker leaving more feathers, a larger surface area, and tendency for the larger birds to have a greater proportion of pin feathers. After plucking, Jen and I finished processing the birds by removing the guts and preparing the giblets (gall bladders needed to be removed and gizzards had to be cleaned). The giblets went into a small ziplock, then both the bird and the giblets went into the chill tank. After several hours, we removed the bird, let it drain for 10 minutes, then packaged it in a poultry bag, inserted the giblet bag, weighed everything, and packed the bags on ice. We went through about $60 in ice in two days (and the ambient temperature never rose about 50).

Our little three person team could do between 4 and 5 birds and hour by the time we finished up on Saturday at noon. In all, it took us 23 hours to process 47 turkeys over two days, including breaks. Was it worth it? That's a question for another blog post...

Thank you for posting with a behind the scenes look at what it takes to make something like this happen.

My only question is that if the "standard" cut in the killing cone doesn't work, what would the better option be? I have no
intention of doing anywhere near that number of birds but we do have a couple of turkeys on the to-do list for next year.

Reply

Jeff

11/28/2012 04:22:19 am

I'm sure others can comment better than me, but here are my thoughts. First, the method I used does work, in terms of killing the bird and removing the blood, it just isn't acceptable to me. I know they make stunners that essentially knock out the bird, which may be more acceptable. The old tried and true method of chopping the head off might be a good option. I would still want to use a cone to keep the bird contained.

Reply

Jeff

11/28/2012 04:23:57 am

I'll also add that I use a pellet gun to dispatch rabbits, and it works great. I tried it on the turkeys and it did not work--the pellet would not puncture the skull, and it is awkward trying to shoot a squirming turkey contained in a cone.

I had a turkey hen that lost an eye early in the growout, and never did grow at the same rate, but she was recognizable, and given her challenge, was actually friendlier than the other birds. I named her the pirate turkey, and it was tough to kill her, too. I completely understand your mixed feelings. I try very hard these days not to get attached to any of the animals, and that's tough with the house piglets -- we bring them back to the house for nursing if they get injured or need the help.
I do tell myself that they get the best life that I can provide, and I'm grateful for them.
It's kind of a rite of passage for farming. It's the difference between a farm and a hobby.

A tank of argon/co2 and a barrel with a lid allows you to do a carbon dioxide stun of the turkeys. You fill the barrel wtih the gas, place the turkey into it, and wait a few minutes. They're unconcious when they come out, but still alive, and placed into the cone don't feel the knife and never wake up.

The argon/co2 is less irritating than straight co2 -- less distress on breathing it, and from what I can see, the last thought a turkey has is "why am I in this barrel? " One barrel will usually stun 10 to 20 turkeys, as the gas is heavier than air. We use a plastic 50 gallon olive barrel with a screw-on lid.

The other thing is to make sure you're using a long-enough and sharp-enough knife. I have a small electric knife sharpener, and during processing breaks we resharpen or steel all of the knives used.

Long enough -- you have to have a knife that is 8 to 10" long so that you can cut the through with one draw of the knife. You can prevent clotting by holding the head for the initial blood flow. The turkey loses conciousness pretty quickly with zero blood pressure to the brain.

I've wondered if a pair of hedge clippers won't do the job; just clip the head complely off while in the cone, but it may leave jagged edges to the neck vertebrae.

I ran across this article on Halal slaughter (I hope the link works, the site is down for maintenance so I can't confirm):
http://halaljournal.com/article/3360/halal:-the-most-humane-slaughter

It was interesting that it seemed to conclude via scientific methods that though a throat cut and slow bleed-out *seems* more horrific to us, that the animal's brain is actually in a peaceful dream state. Versus doing a stun first, the animal's brain is flashing with pain, and whether or not they experience it on some level, despite being unconscious, is not understood. I will say having seen both methods on birds and sheep, I think the bleed-out always seems peaceful. Stunning or head-chopping always seems very violent, to me, with the body seeming to "fight" it a lot longer.

As Bruce points out, I think for small animals, the sudden drop in blood pressure renders them unconscious pretty fast, it's just hard to confirm that since birds tend to "stare" until they fully expire.

I am so impressed by how many birds you did- it is SO much work, isn't it? I have heard of a few people who get skilled enough at it to where it pays, but I know for myself, I'm a long ways from that!

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Brenda

11/29/2012 09:36:43 am

Congrats on processing all those turkeys. That is some seriously physical labor! I totally understand your connection to Beaky. I've gone through that with many animals over the years. I think it's what sets us apart from the factory mentality.
I'm not clear from what you wrote, but do you cut on both sides of the neck? We make two cuts - one on each side- and the turkeys bleed out without a problem of clotting. You may also not be cutting deep enough. Did you try cutting deeper?
Again congrats to you!

Thanks for the detailed and thorough account of your experience. Its nice to find a blog where I can actually learn the how and why instead of reading about a lot of glittering theories :D

Like Bruce, I make the cut at the base of the jaw. I use a razor-sharp fillet knife and plunge the knife behind the esophagus and windpipe with the sharp edge toward and scraping against the vertebra. I hold the head and beak with my left hand, pulling and stretching the neck.

I don't use killing cones as I quarter out my birds, but I do hang them by their feet as part of the killing process. Whether a clothesline or a slipknot of baling twine from the kids swing set, once the turkey is held upside down by their feet, the flopping and flogging and panic seems to subside. Grab the head and beak with the left hand, pull and stretch the neck while detecting the esophagus and windpipe with the fingers, plunge the knife behind them while scraping the vertebra, and monitor blood flow.

Don't let go of the head and beak until you have a good blood flow. If the blood is flowing freely in a steady stream, step back . . . way back. I usually step back to the barn in search of the next turkey.

I wonder if it would be possible to hang the bird by its feet to calm it and then attach a killing cone.